
IN ARCADIA EGO 




From the etching by Charles J acque 



ET IN ARCADIA EGO 



BY 

THEODOSIA GARRISON 

11 



CHICAGO 

BROTHERS OF THE BOOK 

1917 



A simple print upon my study wall, 
I see you smile at it, my masters all ; 
So simple it could scarce indeed be less — 
A shepherd and a little shepherdess. 
Who let their sheep go grazing, truant-wise. 
To look a moment in each other's eyes. 
'A gray-haired man of science," thus your looks, 
'Why is this trifle here among his books?" 
Ah, well, my answer only this could be. 
Because I, too, have been in Arcady. 

My students give grave greeting as I pass. 
Attentive following in talk or class, 
Keen-eyed, clear-headed, eager for the truth; 
Yet if sometime among them sits a youth 
Who scrawls and stares and lets the lesson go 
And puts my questions by, unheeding so, 
I smile and leave his half-writ rhyme unvexed. 
Guessing the face between him and the text. 
A foolish thing — so wise men might agree — 
But I wrote verses once — in Arcady. 



MAR k6 1917 



The little maid who dusts my book-strewn room. 
Poor dingy slave of polish and of broom. 
Who breaks her singing at my footsteps' sound. 
She, too; her way to that lost land has found. 
Last night, a rnoonlit night, and passing late. 
Two shadows started as I passed the gate. 
And then a whisper, poised 'twixt mirth and awe, 
"The old Professor. Mercy, if he saw!" 
Ah, child, my eyes had little need to see — 
I, too, have kissed my love — in Arcady. 

My mirror gives me back a sombre face, 

A gray-haired scholar, old and commonplace. 

Who goes on his sedate and dusty ways. 

With little thought of rosy yesterdays. 

But they who know what eager joy must come 

To one long exiled from a well-loved home. 

When fares some kinsman from that selfsame land 

To give him greeting — they may understand 

How dear these little brethren needs must be 

For that I, too, have lived in Arcady. 



Et In Arcadia Ego first appeared in Scrihners 
Magazine for April, 1906. (Copyright, 1906, by 
Charles Scribner's Sons.) Later it was included 
in The Earth Cry and Other Poems. (Copyright, 
1910, by Mitchell Kennerley.) It is here reprinted 
with the kind permission of author and publishers. 

The frontispiece is from the etching by Charles 
Jacque. The original was the "simple print upon 
my study wall" which gave Miss Garrison the in- 
spiration for the verses. *The old Professor," of 
the verses, kindly loaned the etching for repro- 
duction in this brochure. 

L. C. W. 



HERE ends Et In Arcadia Ego, by Theodosia 
Garrison, which is printed in this form for 
the Brothers of the Book in commemoration of 
the Feast of Saint Valentine, this fourteenth day 
of February, Anno Domini nineteen hundred and 
seventeen. 




INCIPIT VITA NOVA 



THE FAITHQ«N COMPANY. CHICAGO 



*■■ i'i 



i: - 



